A common predicament with which many a sports fan has contended is what to do with the things he wants to have close at hand, e.g. refreshments, scorecards, etc. This problem is not unique to sporting events, but rather is common to everyone who has juggled multiple food items and drinks. The problem is magnified at sporting events due to the limited space available, and the large number of items that can be useful.
There are many devices in the prior art which relate to the problem of holding or carrying food items. The device probably most often encountered is one such as the "PAPERBOARD SERVING TRAY" of Walter L. Peiker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,512,963. This device is that found at fast food restaurants, and includes receptacles for liquid containers, and a central depressed area for food items. While this device does alleviate the problem of carrying multiple food items, it makes no provision to aid the user when he sits down.
An inventor who recognized that people often eat or transport food in their cars was H. E. Goings, who holds two patents on a "CAR SEAT TRAY", U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,326,445 and 3,326,445. These devices are designed to sit on a vacant car seat, and include receptacle for drinks and a space for food. These devices make no provision for being held on a user's lap.
Devices that were designed to serve as lap trays are the "LAP TRAY" of C. A. Cramer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,808,191, and the "FOLDABLE LAP TRAY" of John J. Hood, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,339. The Cramer device is in the form of an angled box, with multiple areas on the top surface that can be punched out to hold various items. The device is angled on the assumption that the upper surface of a user's legs would be angled downward when sitting. The angled lower surface would therefore provide a flat upper surface. Unfortunately, that angle would depend on the length of each user's legs and the surface on which he was sitting. In addition, there is no provision to stabilize the device.
The Hood device is also in box form, but is directed to a situation in which the user wraps the lower surface of the device under his legs to stabilize the tray. The user ends up with his legs inside the tray to keep it in place. While this would certainly stabilize the tray, it would require a good deal of space to deploy, and would greatly restrict the mobility of the user.
There are also devices in the art which do provide legs for stability, while retaining the folding aspect of the tray. Two such inventions are the "FOLDING TABLE" of Stone, U.S. Pat. No. 2,240,024, and the "ONE-PIECE COLLAPSIBLE TABLE" of Lassaine, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,345. These devices provide support legs at the periphery of the table, while retaining the folding structure of the devices described above.
None of these prior art devices disclose a lap tray that is foldable, so that it can be constructed from cardboard, and yet makes provision for the fact that a tray on a user's lap is inherently unstable.
There are devices in the prior art which address these shortcomings, such as the "LEG SUPPORTED TRAY" of Jenkins, U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,274, which has a tray portion in addition to elements which are to be propped on the user's legs. However, this device is constructed from rigid material, which will eliminate any folding aspect of the device, and will greatly increase production costs as well. By creating a rigid device, transport and storage is also made more difficult.